“A slash down the front with some very heavy and very sharp weapon,” said the big man, slowly. “That’s what young Campe got a few nights ago. Not deep,” and Bat shook his head, “but it was just such a slash as put this other one out of the running.”
Ashton-Kirk resumed his reading.
“At the death of Henry, Mexico had run out of male Campes. There only remained a younger son who was then attending a university in the United States. There were several daughters, but these have resided for some years in Berlin. The greater part of the family interests in Mexico and Central America have been disposed of, and what’s left is being offered for sale. From this, it seems that what remains of the family have no intention of returning south of the Rio Grande.”
Here the crime specialist folded up the paper, and threw it upon the table.
“Is that all?” asked the big man.
“Yes.”
“Well,” declared Bat, “to my way of looking at it, it’s plenty. In view of the way that man met his death in the hall-way, can you figure the matters of the yacht and the bridge as accidents?”
Ashton-Kirk shook his head.
“At this distance we can’t say,” said he. “But the deaths of the three have a stamp upon them which suggest——”
“They were murdered,” said Bat. And then, with his eyes upon the other, he added: “But why?”